Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que Cookbook - by Jeff Stehney & Doug Worgul (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The long-awaited first cookbook from one of this most successful barbecue joints in the country, Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que.

"I'm reminded of the importance of what we do here, and our role in Kansas City's barbecue tradition, every morning when I arrive at the restaurant and smell that wonderful smoke coming out of our smokers. After all these years, it's still magical."
--Jeff Stehney, owner

For the first time, Joe's storied history and 65 of their famous recipes are captured in one fantastic book. In Kansas City, barbecue is a way of life and smoke has the power to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. It can transform the least desirable cuts of meat into the most delectable. It can even transform a neighborhood corner gas station into one of the most popular restaurants on the planet.

Step inside the world of some of the best barbecue in the country. Author and owner, Jeff Stehney, attended his first barbecue competition in 1990 and he was hooked. Over the next several years his competition team, Slaughterhouse Five, would go on to win many of the most prestigious competitions across the country. Jeff went into business with Joe Don Davidson and opened the first Oklahoma Joe's in Stillwater, Oklahoma in 1996. Their second location, an iconic gas station in Kansas City, opened because it was located close to Jeff and Joy's home. In 1997 Jeff and Joy became the sole owners and developed Joe's into one of the most successful restaurants in the country. With three locations in Kansas, you can't go to Joe's without expecting to stand in line; It is always worth the wait and nothing short of perfection, every time.

Review Quotes

"Consistently ranked among the nation's top BBQ joints, this smokehouse epitomizes the Kansas City style: slow-smoked meats slathered in a thick, sweet, tomato-and-molasses-based sauce." (Emily Saladino and Lauren Rothman, New York Post)

About the Author

Jeff Stehney is the president and co-founder of Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que.

Jeff first began competing in barbecue contests with his wife Joy in 1990. In the years since, the Stehneys' team, Slaughterhouse Five, has won nearly thirty Grand and Reserve Grand Championships in contests sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society, including the American Royal Invitational and Open. In 1993, Slaughterhouse Five won the Kansas City Barbeque Society Team of The Year. Encouraged by their success in competition barbecue, Jeff & Joy opened their first restaurant in 1996, in the gas station at the corner of 47th & Mission, in Kansas City, Kansas. They've opened two additional restaurants since. Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que has been Zagat's highest rated Kansas City barbecue establishment every year since 2004. USA Today named Joe's ribs as "Tastiest Ribs in America" in spring 2013. Readers of USA Today voted Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que "Best Southern BBQ" in a nationwide poll in May 2015. In 2015, the Kansas City, Kansas, Convention and Visitors Bureau named Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que its Organization of the Year.

Doug Worgul is a writer, editor, and marketing executive based in Kansas City. He is the author of two previous work of non-fiction: A Table Full of Welcome, a cookbook celebrating the ethnic diversity of Kansas City's culinary traditions, and The Grand Barbecue, a celebration of the history, places, people, and techniques of Kansas City barbecue. His critically-acclaimed novel, Thin Blue Smoke, was published in the U.K. by Macmillan in 2009 and in the U.S. by Conundrum Press in 2012. A nationally-recognized authority on the history and cultural significance of American barbecue traditions, Worgul is currently director of marketing at Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que in Kansas City.